When Murray Totland was cutting grass and cleaning toilets at Gordie Howe Bowl in the 1970s, running the show at Saskatoon City Hall never crossed his mind.

City manager since 2009, Totland became the first City of Saskatoon employee to crack $300,000 a year in 2014 while guiding the administrative side of municipal government through a period of unprecedented growth.

The engineering graduate from the University of Saskatchewan, who has worked full-time for the city since 1982, already knows what his legacy will be.

“Every city manager probably brings their own value and will leave their own legacy, shall we say,” Totland said in a recent interview.

“Mine has probably been one of change. And I know my staff sometimes when they see me coming, they probably go, ‘Oh my gosh, here comes Murray again. I hope he’s not wanting to change something again.’ ” The change comes not because Totland was eager to rewrite the book on how to operate a municipal government, but because he could see the change was necessary as Saskatoon experienced a growth spurt.

Totland knew that city hall needed to adapt.

He recalled the change becoming apparent while working as infrastructure services manager a couple of years before he took the top job. It’s part of why he applied.

“I knew our culture could change and change to be more constructive and positive, become more flexible, more adaptive because we needed to,” he said. “That was the problem. I saw all this change going on around us and I’m looking and going, ‘Boy, if we don’t rethink the way we approach some of our work and if we keep just applying the same old models and the same old solutions to all these new problems and new challenges that we’re facing, we’re not going to be very satisfied with the result. And to be honest, we’re not going to be very successful.’ ” Change and growth have played a major role in Totland’s career with the city, dating back to when he was first hired.

“I think he has demonstrated an ability to manage in what was not only an exciting but difficult time,” said former city councillor Glen Penner, who was part of the council that hired Totland.

Saskatoon ‘boom’ Totland started with the city in 1976 working summers while still a student at the U of S. “It was a real boom period,” recalled Totland, who got hired to work on a survey crew.

He remembered people camped out in tents on the lawn in front of City Hall to buy lots.

A labour dispute gave him a taste of the variety city hall offered as he got reassigned to do groundskeeping and janitorial work at Gordie Howe Bowl, then working on an asphalt crew and on a garbage truck.

After Totland graduated in 1979, he moved to Regina to work for a construction company, but was urged by his dad – a member of the Saskatoon police for three decades – to apply for a job as a traffic studies engineer with his old employer, the City of Saskatoon. He was happy enough in Regina, but felt a familiar pull back home.

Much of Totland’s 33-year career with the city focused on traffic and transportation, but he also acquired an MBA degree that gave him a greater appreciation for the administration and finance side of delivering city services.

He never gave much thought to the top job at city hall – except to get out of the way of the big boss.

“To be honest, when I was a young engineer, they scared the heck out of me,” he said. “I was in awe of them. It was a big deal.”

In 2005, Totland was promoted to manager of utility services and pulled double duty for a while as manager of infrastructure services after Stew Uzelman died suddenly while in that position. Totland then moved full time into the role.

Then, in 2008, city manager Phil Richards announced he was going to retire a year before his contract expired. Richards said then it was time for “new ideas.”

“To be frank about it, I hadn’t been thinking terribly much about city manager,” Totland recalled. “I had lots of other stuff to keep me busy. And to be honest I was quite enjoying my work in infrastructure services. I’ve always enjoyed the engineering part of the city’s operations.”

Totland came from a completely different part of city administration than Richards, whose background was human resources and finance. Totland felt he had the new ideas the city needed.

Looking back, Richards said the city was already being squeezed by the pressures of growth.

“It was hard to keep up,” said Richards, who thought Totland was the right choice to succeed him. “It’s a nice problem to have, but it is a problem.”

Totland’s history with the city played a key role in his hiring, according to former city councillor Bev Dubois, who served on the committee that selected Totland. “I personally supported and enjoyed working with Murray very much,” Dubois said. “He is very committed to the City of Saskatoon.”

Former city councillor Myles Heidt appreciated Totland’s candour and willingness to speak his mind. “He was not a ‘yes’ man,” Heidt said. “That’s why I supported him. You want a manager who will tell it like it is – not how the politicians want to hear it.”

Heidt described Totland as “very businesslike,” which would surprise few who have seen his super-serious demeanour delivering information to city council. What might surprise some is the liveliness with which Totland talked about his role at city hall outside council chambers, lightly making contact with his hands on a table for emphasis.

‘Own blueprint’ Dubois said it took some time for Totland to get acclimatized in his new role, but he eventually began to make his “own blueprint” for city hall.

Perhaps the biggest change came in 2014 when Totland reorganized city hall into four basic departments, including reducing his former department, infrastructure services, to a branch inside one of the four.

The last time a similar major reorganization took place in 1999, city council fired city manager Rick Tomaszewicz after less than a year. The 1999 changes involved job losses, while Totland managed his shuffle without cutting staff.

“Murray likes to have a large team working with him in all the different areas,” Dubois observed. The entire governance system was changed last year with a move to hold city council once a month instead of twice and a revamp of the committees to give them more power.

Penner said one of the key changes since Totland took over – although he credits both council and administration for the move – is the greater emphasis on public consultation.

Totland said the driving force behind all of the efforts at city hall is maintaining or improving the quality of life in Saskatoon.

“Everything we work on, we kind of have that in the back of our minds: We have to ensure that we never lose sight of the importance of that quality of life.”

As much power as Totland wields trying to deliver quality of life to Saskatoon residents, he remains accountable to city council.

Totland downplays rifts that may appear between administration and council, such as during last year’s transit lockout when council reversed a move by administration and voted to restore bus service.

A schism seems to occur annually as council tries to limit any increase in property taxes. Last year, that divide seemed more pronounced as councillors appeared frustrated trying to change the budget during deliberations in December. Three councillors voted against the budget.

This year, the budget process has been changed to try to be more transparent throughout the year and give residents and council more opportunities for change. In July, council is expected to be presented with options, including service reductions, to avoid another big tax increase.

“It may seem perhaps that (politicians are) taking it out on the administration, but I don’t think that’s ever their intent,” Totland said. “I think that process is frustrating for them.”

Heidt said Totland always did a very good job of laying out the options for council, between raising taxes and reducing services, but no politicians want to “close a pool” in their ward to save money.

“When the mill rates go up, it’s not Murray Totland,” Heidt said.

‘Very privileged’ Totland gives credit to the current version of council for being forward thinking.

“Our city is growing and changing and they understand that we have to change and adapt to that,” he said. “I think our council has got that figured out.”

As for what current councillors and Mayor Don Atchison think of Totland, the four councillors who have served more than one term and the mayor all declined to comment. Several suggested it was inappropriate to comment on the city manager since he is a de facto employee of council.

None of the former councillors contacted who were there for the first three years of Totland’s tenure expressed any regret.

“I felt very confident when we appointed Murray,” Penner said.

Totland feels the same way about taking a shot at the top job that now pays him $325,000 a year, well above his original base salary of $198,000 in 2009.

He admitted Richards had a point when he left after a decade to make way for new ideas, but Totland, 58, said there’s no “magic number” for him in terms of how long he plans to stay.

“To be city manager in Saskatoon right here and now I can’t think of a better place in North America to be a city manager,” Totland said. “We’re prospering as a community. We’re growing as a community. There’s a lot of positive things going on in Saskatoon.

“Sure we’ve got our challenges and issues, but compared to what I’ve seen elsewhere I think we’re very privileged to be in Saskatoon and I’m very privileged to be city manager in Saskatoon.” ptank@thestarphoenix.com @thinktankSK

City manager always a builder Most city managers likely consider themselves builders, but few likely take the hands-on approach of Saskatoon’s Murray Totland. Totland, who graduated with a degree in engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, also does all of his literal building on his own time.

“I’m a builder,” Totland said. “I think I’m a carpenter by nature, to be honest.”

Totland and his brother, who is now a journeyman carpenter, built go-karts growing up in Saskatoon. As they got older, they decided to elevate their parents’ wartime house on Ash Street in order to pour a proper basement.

Totland stuck with building and carpentry as a hobby even as he rose through the

ranks to the top job with the City of Saskatoon.

“It’s a relief for me,” Totland said. “I get a ton of enjoyment from it.

“I’ve always been a builder. I’ve built some houses and some cabins.”

Totland, 58, also considers himself “a bit of a sports guy” who has played recreational hockey for most of his life.

Saskatoon’s city manager since 2009 tries to stay active and plans to keep fit as he approaches 60.

While Totland has no plans to quit as city manager soon, he does see himself returning to “pure engineering” one day rather than just settling into retirement.

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